[rating:74/100]
Karen O and The Kids’ Where The Wild Things Are OST is an album that is impossible to consider abstracted from the movie it is destined to accompany. Unlike some soundtracks merely meant to advance the plot, provide suspense, or fill the void left by a lack of dialogue, this soundtrack embodies everything the movie is. The film’s characters make appearances, the themes of the songs match those of the book and movie, and the soundtrack’s parabola parallels that of Where The Wild Things Are’s plot.

So it is ironic, then, that I find myself reviewing this album prior to ever seeing the film. I feel, in many ways, that I’ve heard a sneak preview – that what I’ll see on the screen will simply be the music videos I’ve been imagining accompanying this album all along. And the fact that the film will likely exceed the expectations that this soundtrack creates fits with everything else related to the media blitz that has been WTWTA.

Ever since the first Arcade Fire scored trailer for Where The Wild Things Are hit the internet, it has been clear that this movie would be driven in no small part by the music accompanying it. In reality, I see no other way to successfully adapt a book that has no more than a few paragraphs of plot, maximum. Karen O and the Kids (a group that includes members of Liars, Deerhunter, The Dead Weather, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Raconteurs) manage to do more than simply fill the space between words, though, creating a fun record that is chock full of unbridled energy and un-tampered with innocence. The triumph of this album is not its ability to capture the emotions of Maurice Sendak’s beloved book, it is in its ability to bring those emotions to a different medium without losing a drop, adding some fright and joy of its own.

See, the funny thing is, despite the fact that the soundtrack is closely tied to the album, the album succeeds in holding up as its own work. Without Sendak’s plot and Spike Jonze’s images the album might lose some narrative, that much is undeniable. But it wouldn’t lose all of its appeal. Where The Wild Things Are finds the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ frontwoman exploring her whimsical side, clapping with her friends, and making music that somehow manages to capture wide-eyed childhood and everything that comes along with it.

I’m glad that I got to hear this soundtrack before seeing the movie. In the coming months, Karen O.’s music may be seen as a supplement to Jonze’s film, a fun follow-up to a potential instant classic of a movie. Where The Wild Things Are OST is more than a companion piece, though. It’s a sunny day romp through your long lost six year old mind, where you wore feety-pajamas and weren’t afraid to scream at the top of your lungs.

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